swell

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   To become bigger, especially due to being engorged.

   • O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend The brightest heaven of invention, A kingdom for a stage, princes to act And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!
2. 2

   To cause to become bigger.

   • Rains and dissolving snow swell the rivers in spring.
   • Mildly it [the wind] kist our sailes, and, fresh, and sweet, As, to a stomack sterv’d, whose insides meete, Meate comes, it came; and swole our sailes, when wee So joyd, as Sara’ her swelling joy’d to see.
   • ’Tis low ebb sure with his Accuser, when such Peccadillos as these are put in to swell the Charge.
3. 3

   To grow gradually in force or loudness.

   • The organ music swelled.
4. ›+ 21 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      To cause to grow gradually in force or loudness.

      • It commenced with a slow crescendo, so irresistibly lugubrious that two of our dogs at once raised their heads and swelled their voices into a responsive tremolo, which may have been heard and appreciated by their distant relatives.
   2. 5

      To raise to arrogance

      To raise to arrogance; to puff up; to inflate.

      • to be swelled with pride or haughtiness
   3. 6

      To be raised to arrogance.

      • Why, here he comes, swelling like a turkey-cock.
      • […] you swell at the sight of tartan, as the bull is said to do at scarlet.
   4. 7

      To be elated

      To be elated; to rise arrogantly.

      • In all things else above our humble fate Your equal mind yet swells not into state, But like some mountain in those happy Isles Where in perpetual Spring young Nature smiles, Your greatnesse shows:
   5. 8

      To be turgid, bombastic, or extravagant.

      • swelling words  a swelling style
   6. 9

      To protuberate

      To protuberate; to bulge out.

      • A cask swells in the middle.
   7. 10

      The act of swelling

      The act of swelling; increase in size.

   8. 11

      A bulge or protuberance.

   9. 12

      Increase of power in style, or of rhetorical force.

      • Concentrated are his arguments, select and distinct and orderly his topics, ready and unfastidious his expressions, popular his allusions, plain his illustrations, easy the swell and subsidence of his periods […]
   10. 13

       A long series of ocean waves, generally produced by wind, and lasting after the wind has…

       A long series of ocean waves, generally produced by wind, and lasting after the wind has ceased.

       • the heave of a heavy ocean swell
       • There was a great, smooth swell upon the sea.
       • Now they were faced with the problem of a northerly blow, which could soon send a heavy swell clean into the bay.
   11. 14

       A gradual crescendo followed by diminuendo.

   12. 15

       A device for controlling the volume of a pipe organ.

   13. 16

       A division in a pipe organ, usually the largest enclosed division.

   14. 17

       A hillock or similar raised area of terrain.

       • Off on the crest of a swell a moving figure was seen now and then. "Antelope," said the hunters.
   15. 18

       An upward protrusion of strata from whose central region the beds dip quaquaversally at a…

       An upward protrusion of strata from whose central region the beds dip quaquaversally at a low angle.

   16. 19

       A person who is stylish, fancy, or elegant.

       • It costs him no more to wear all his ornaments about his distinguished person than to leave them at home. If you can be a swell at a cheap rate, why not?
       • He was dressed in a flashy style, not unlike what is popularly denominated a swell.
   17. 20

       A person of high social standing

       A person of high social standing; an important person.

       • “I,” said Binet, “once saw a piece called the ‘Gamin de Paris,’ in which there was the character of an old general that is really hit off to a T. He sets down a young swell, who had seduced a working girl, who at the end———”
       • The only sensible man I came across was the cabman who drove me about. A broken-down swell he was, I fancy.
   18. 21

       The front brow of a saddle bow, connected in the tree by the two saddle bars to the…

       The front brow of a saddle bow, connected in the tree by the two saddle bars to the cantle on the other end.

   19. 22

       Fashionable, like a swell or dandy.

       • We pay the express, $5 a day our new agents are making and wearing the swellest clothes besides; old agents after one season make twice as much.
   20. 23

       Excellent.

       • ...you are my devoted friend too. You do more and work harder and oh shit I'd get maudlin about how damned swell you are. My god I'd like to see you... You're a hell of a good guy.
       • He was telling us all about what a swell guy he was, what a hot-shot and all, […]
   21. 24

       Very well.

       • “That lousy ring wasn’t worth no grand. I did swell to get two centuries for it.”
       • “[…] Last August, when I left The Walls, I figured I had every chance to start new. I got a job in Olathe, lived with my family, and stayed home nights. I was doing swell—”

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